I hear rumors of a $299 PS3 model, but it won't include an optical drive or video output.

They don't have to do anything until the PS3 starts to actually do something and there's no signs of that.

Until the PS3 has some games worth playing, they're no competition for the 360. By the time that happens, they'll be too far behind for it to make a difference.

All I can say is you're EXTREMELY picky when it comes to games.

No value on backwards compatibility? How about whatever the price is of a PS2?

The problem is that most buyers don't really want a blu ray player or a huge hard drive, they want a games machine. There is no point in "evening the playing field" when most people don't care about those features.

Personally, I think the XBox elite is pointless now that the HDMI slot is standard on all machines.

If I were going to buy a console now, I would go for the 360 Premium as there is no way I would pay $600 for a PS3 with removed features.

Wow. I didn't realize The Show was that good. This could be a good thing I guess. It will force 2k Sports to make it's MLB game better, which is ported to the 360.

Totally agree with that. Premium model is the best bang for your buck out of the three 360 systems.

You could argue that's it's more than that. BC is not a PS2. It's actually an upconverted PS2.

With that said, much like the BR player, there's a lot of people that could care less about the BC option and don't want it forced on them. They can get a HD media player for both games and movies without the BC cheaper now than they could before.

I don't know about everyone else, but I would have preferred the BC and no HD media for a cheaper price.

I thought the BC was software emulation? If that's the case, can they offer the emulator some point as a software title, at least for the those that wish to purchase it? I would buy a ps3 at some point(after another pricecut or three), but I would really want to be able to play some of the ps2 titles I missed out on, I'd probably never buy it in its current non-bc form though.

Same here. If I was to get a PS3, I would much rather have the ability to play PS2 games than watch a Blu-Ray movie.

Well the PS3 games come on Blu-Ray discs so I'm not too sure how much joy you would have gotten out of that.

Wha?

What he means is, if you take out the ability to play Blu-ray movies, you remove the ability to play PS3 games.

In which case, you'd be spending $400 on a PS3 for the sole purpose of playing...PS2 games.

Not the smartest financial move!

You could interpret the comment as "They never should have put Blu-Ray in there in the first place, as it drove up the price of the console and is forcing them to do things like cut the BC they so highly touted as an advantage over the 360 in an effort to get competitive on price". Or in other words, their insistence on using it to win the DVD format war is causing them to cut gaming features from their gaming console that will make it even MORE difficult for them to catch up.

Me, I'm just enjoying hearing them spout off the same excuses ("We'd rather focus on new games") that everyone castigated Microsoft for when Microsoft first announced they would have no BC in the 360...

I'm sure someone can correct me, but I thought there weren't any games on Blu-Ray yet. I thought they were on regular DVDs.

All PS3 games ship on Blu-ray Disc.

Just to be clear, that's not totally true. Sony will still have BC in the 60 and 80 GB models. They're offering a lower cost option for those that don't want BC and want a cheaper price, but they haven't cut off BC support like MS has.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/back...ygameslist.htm

"List updated July 2007."

I'm sorry, what?

I would have gone with, "Just to be clear, that's not totally true."

Yes, but if it's Mizzou talking, you can almost assume that. ;)

:D

And my point still stands: they've backed themselves into a corner where they have to cut gaming features they touted as critical to success in the current console environment instead of media features many don't want that are really driving up the price.

So this past weekend my brother called me and asked if I wanted a brand new 360 for $250. Apparently he sold one at his retail job and the the customers came back with their kid who had wanted a wii. The box had not been touched but the store had to "Open Box" price it and my brother took home the 360 for half cost.

Nice.

The 60GB PS3 is being scrapped in Europe. The 80GB PS3 was never released in Europe, so this means that in a few months we can choose between a stripped down PS3 or nothing at all.

http://kotaku.com/gaming/ps3/scee-ps...too-307651.php

Heh. Apparently they have a Mizzouh B-Ball Fan-type poster over there, too:

BY ARBOOM AT 10/05/07 02:07 PM
The way I see it is if the 60/80/20/whatever else GB didn't exist, and only the 40 GB did, people would never say it was "gimped." It still beats the Elite (next gen format included, built in wi-fi) save for HDD space, at a lower price nonetheless.
You should really think of the US + JPN 60GB as an early adopter's special. They paid a lot of money for it, and got a lot of tech out of it too.
You cannot have all the original PS3 had in it and have a competitive price like the 40 GB has. That is simply not possible. I think Sony made a really good compromise and still give you a lot for your dollar, euro, or pound. Like the difference between getting a top of the line BMW and a more modest BMW. It's still a damn fine car either way

Another brilliant choice by Sony!

I guess it's too much to ask you to quote something I've actually stated. I could post a bunch of 360 fanboy posts from an idiot and attribute them to you, but it wouldn't advance the discussion any further than a first grade level and would be a waste of time.

Very doubtful that will occur as you've stated. I'd be very surprised if they didn't release a higher end model once the 60 GB model is exhausted. The comments certainly didn't dismiss that. The 80 GB model is in supply and would be the likely candidate.

Since the individual regions (SCEJ, SCEE, SCEA, etc.) are now controlling the pricing, hopefully the American people decide to bring the 40 GB here for $400. If the PAL version of Pro Evo 2008 works on both SD and HD tv's in the US (HD is a given, SD seems to be hit or miss) I'll probably import the game and pick up a PS3. If not, I'll be waiting until Metal Gear Solid 4. My six year old fat PS2 still works ok although I haven't played it in months anyhow so backwards compatibility isn't a big deal for me.

According to one of the top guys at Sony Europe they are going with one model in Europe.


Then again, Sony denied the price cuts and the 40GB model, so I would naturally be sceptical of this claim.

I agree that Sony will launch the 80GB version over here at some point, however I don't think they can charge the £425 they were charging for the 60GB, as it will be an extremely hard sell with the 40GB version going for £125 less.

If you truly want a 60 or 80 GB model with BC, you can get an import U.S. console for roughly the same price you would pay if it was in Europe. No region restrictions, so you could play it as though it were a Euro PS3.

Well that seems convienient.

Actually, imports are pretty easy to do anymore. Sites like PlayAsia.com make it really easy to do that at the exact same prices you'd pay in that region. I've done it with 2 Japanese imports and got both games in 7 days. Importing is a quickly growing business in all three of the major regions, much more so than it was even a few years ago. It's certainly just as easy as ordering from a state-side retailer and in some cases, just as quick.

Just. Stop. Talking.

The problem importing a console is that you lose the warranty when doing it. Before purchasing my PS3, i thought on importing an NTSC XBox 360 from USA, so investigated about it, and a console has only warranty in the country where you purchased it and that is why i decidd to not to do it, as in Spain, we have two years warranty on every electronic device, and that is something too good to pass on it.

All PS3 models are receiving a price cut in Japan. New 40 GB model will be built in white plastic (I don't get the whole color deal, but the Asian crowd just goes crazy over new color models).

http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/release/071009ae.html

360's don't get imported much for that very reason.

You are correct, and I apologize. I will edit the post to reflect my true intention, was that they have someone over there who sounds exactly like you do when you post.

Microsoft announced that they will have bundles available for the holiday season. Forza 2 and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance will be bundled with the Pro and Elite 360's. No bundle for the Core model.

Tough luck for Sony, today Capcom has announced that Monster Hunter 3 will be a Wii exclusive.

http://www.sharewatch.com/story.php?storynumber=49593

Selected bits of the article:

"Due to high development cost of titles for PS3, we have decided to switch the platform to which we release our Monster Hunster 3 title," Capcom managing corporate officer Katsuhiko Ichii said.

In unveiling the exclusive deal with the influential game developer, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said that the company is now "entering the third phase of its strategy, aimed at expanding the game player population." "With the release of the Nintendo DS portable game console and Wii stand-alone game machine, we managed to lure those who have never played games or those who have stopped playing games to play them," Iwata said.

"I understand that some experts argue that our success is short-lived and temporary. So, we now need to make efforts to constantly expand the player base by offering services and titles that can appeal not only to those who have never played games but also to those who play them hard," he said.

That is a fantastic quote at the end. I am impressed, Nintendo is not fucking around.

Well-timed by Nintendo as well. This wasn't a coincedental announcement. They timed the announcement to try to take some of the steam off the new PS3 announcement in Japan. Nintendo likely had to pay a chunk of change, but it will be worth it to get a non-Nintendo franchise in the fold. Most people were surprised when they initially announced that Monster Hunter was going to be on the PS3. Capcom and Sony's relationship seems to have soured as of late.

New 360 setup (Jasper) already in development for next year to replace Falcon layout........

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/200...es_jasper.html

Microsoft didn’t want you to know about Falcon, and it certainly doesn’t want you to know about its successor Jasper. But that’s another secret we have to unveil.

Jasper is the code name for the next motherboard for the Xbox 360. It will becoming next August, in time for next year’s holiday season. Jasper is going to have a 65-nanometer graphics chip from ATI Technologies, as well as smaller memory chips. That isn’t much information, but it’s enough to tell us about their cost-reduction plan. If you ask me, it’s a bit of a slow pace.

I don’t know why it will take Microsoft essentially three years to cost reduce the size of the graphics chip through a manufacturing shrink. It doesn’t seem like they’re in a hurry to launch a redesigned Xbox 360 graphics chip, considering that Intel introduced its first 65-nm chips a long time ago. ATI uses TSMC to make its chips out of Taiwan, and TSMC hasn’t been the fastest at moving to 65-nm manufacturing. I understand these tasks are difficult and they take a lot of engineering resources. Microsoft has had to divert a lot of engineers to debugging problems with Xbox 360 reliability. Even so, you would think that they would have moved faster, since the move to 65-nm graphics chip will likely be one of the best things they can do to improve the reliability.

As readers of this blog know, Falcon is being used in Xbox 360s that are currently rolling off the production lines. It has a 65-nm IBM microprocessor on it, instead of the previous 90-nm version. It also has built-in HDMI. It carries lower costs than the previous motherboard, but not dramatically so. And Falcon has a 90-nm graphics chip on it.

Here’s something that Xbox 360 buyers will want to know. Both Falcon and its predecessor Zephyr (used in the Xbox 360 Elite) have different thermal solutions than the original Xbox 360. You’ve seen the heat sinks in the cut-out photos posted elsewhere. The Microsoft engineers believe those heat sinks will be sufficient as a solution for keeping Xbox 360s from overheating. From their point of view, you don’t have to wait until Jasper to get a reliable machine.

From a neutral point of view, I would guess that Jasper would be more reliable than Falcon on heat issues, and Falcon will be more reliable than its predecessors. The Falcon board has the same old 90-nm graphics chip on it. And many have pointed out that the big heat problem in the Xbox 360 is due to the graphics chip. The Falcon board will likely give off less heat. But the real serious heat saver looks like it will come with Jasper.

I’m sure that Jasper will carry lower costs than Falcon. That’s because it will have a smaller graphics chip and smaller memory chips as well. That translates into material savings, which means lower costs. If you’re wondering why you should care? Maybe you don’t need to care. But there are folks on the Falcon thread who want to know this kind of information and here it is. Certainly, Microsoft will be in a position to cut prices again by next August. If you recall, after it got Falcon out the door, Microsoft cut $50 off the price of the Xbox 360.

If I were Microsoft, I would try to pull in the date of Jasper as soon as possible. What they need right now is a lower cost so that they can be more competitive against the Wii and so they leave no openings for Sony. As of now, the 65-nm graphics chip isn’t done. They’re still working on it. Microsoft declined to comment, other than to say that it constantly updates the components in the Xbox 360 but doesn’t comment on them.

Here's some other interesting news from the Nintendo conference:

Sonic the Hedgehog will be in Smash Bros. Brawl, but the release date has been changed from Dec. 3 to TBD. The game will also feature online co-op.

Square will be releasing a second Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles game on the Wii, but this one will be a download-only WiiWare title, due to come out next year. Other upcoming WiiWare games will include Dr. Mario, Star Soldier R, Pokeman Ranch, and a Bomberman game.

Super Mario Stadium Baseball announced for Wii, not much info given but I'm sure the title says it all.

Mario Kart Wii slips from Q1 2008 to Spring 2008, and will feature motorcycles (?!) for the first time.

The next game in the Fire Emblem series will come out for the DS.

WiiMusic was shown in a video montage so that's still in development. WiiFit is coming out in Japan next month, here sometime in 2008.

Soon you will be able to download DS demos on your Wii then transfer them over.

The US conference is today, hopefully Nintendo announces improved SD card functionality or some kind of hard-drive add-on because people aren't going to have any room to put all this stuff. Also I hope Smash isn't delayed too long.

Basically, yesterday was a good day for Wii/DS owners.

Timesplitters 4 announced; currently in development........

I wonder if it will be a trend. Here is an interesting article about developers shifting resources towards the Wii:

http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/fe...00500000000009

If you are a game developer/publisher, you can't help but look at the sales of the Wii and think long and hard about how you can exploit that market.

I'm not a programmer, so my info is 2nd hand, but my understanding is that it's not a significant jump from a game engine side from the Gamecube to the Wii - i.e., if you have an engine that runs on the Gamecube, it's not a lot of extra work to get it running on the Wii, as opposed to the differences between the Xbox and 360 and the PS2 and the PS3. To the extent that is true, that's also a factor - cost of development.

Further, if you look at the kinds of games Nintendo is selling bucketloads of on the Wii, they're not terribly complex from either a programming side (not a lot of complex AI for example) or an art side - they're mainly about innovative gameplay and exploiting the unique controller scheme.

The downside is looking at the 3rd party sales for the Wii and wondering if yours will be the company that can buck the trend (Ubisoft being the primary exception so far).

How many third-party Wii games have deserved good sales, i.e. they didn't suck?

Here's a few that got decent reviews but didn't sell well (with GameRankings composite rating and sales figures courtesy of VGChartz):

Madden '07 - 82%, 400K
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz - 73%, 340K
Elebits - 75%, 220K
SSX Blur - 74%, 130K
Scarface - 71%, 60K

Now, I suppose you could look at those ratings and say "well, they weren't super awesome games", but I can tell you that publishers look at those numbers and scratch their foreheads in consternation - it's not easy to make a game that gets 80% or higher. Those games listed above are good efforts for the most part - not uniformly great, but pretty good games all things considered. And aside from Madden and Scarface, which were one of multiple SKU's and thus likely had very low development costs (since they were ports), they probably weren't profitable.

That's not to say that 3rd party developers aren't going to put more resources into Wii development - they will, simply because of the lure of the large and growing install base - but they are going to have to be smarter about realizing what the market is on the Wii and what will sell, given the fact the Wii install base is different (when looked at from a general perspective) than those for the 360 and PS3. My 72 year-old dad bought a Wii, and games like Resident Evil and Madden are not going to appeal to him, whereas games like Rayman and Wario Ware will.

Those Madden sales seem decent considering the game came out in November and any serious Madden fan bought the game in August their PS2/Xbox/X360. Are those numbers for Monkey Ball really that bad? (the site looks like it needs updating anyhow, I'm sure they sold a few copies in Europe) Blur I'll grant you bombed, Scarface was a year old port of a game that wasn't that highly regarded in the first place.

There have been a few third-party success stories:

Red Steel and Raymen both sold a million copies, Red Steel got poor reviews but that game was actually advertised which helped sales along with being a launch title. Trauma Center (quite good at 81% but a rehash of the DS title), Tiger Woods 07 (74%), Sonic and the Secret Rings (71%), and Resident Evil 4 (91% but the game first came out years ago) also did well sales-wise despite not being original, top-notch games.

When a third-party truly brings an actual new, high quality (in the 80s at least, preferably mid-80s) game that gets ignored because of Mario Party 17 (don't even mention Wii Play, that's a controller with a $10 game attached to it) then it would be a bit more concerning. The fact of the matter is that this has not yet occurred.

I mean alongside the one year headstart Microsoft had this generation, isn't the quality of the third-party XBox 360 games a big reason for their impressive sales? Bioshock, Guitar Hero II, Dead Rising, Tom Clancy's GRAW, these big sellers were all 85%+ games...

I'm not going to pretend to know the development costs for Super Monkey Ball, but even if 340K units sold was enough to cover those costs, it certainly wasn't a significant profit.

I agree that good, innovative 3rd party games should sell on the Wii, but there is some hesitancy as developers figure out the Wii market. Developers do seem to have a better grasp on the 360 market, which accounts for the quantity, quality and sales for 3rd party games on that platform.

Don't forget that MLB Power Pros is getting really good word of mouth and got an 8.4 on IGN (no GameSpot review yet).

Yeah Power Pros is really good and I hope that the game being brought over here isn't just a one-time thing.

New bundle announced for Japan. 40 GB PS3 packaged with Dynasty Warriors 6......

http://www.siliconera.com/2007/10/09...n-ps3-package/


Interesting comments from a developer of COD4. Evidently, they built the same functionality that is in XBL into the online components of the PS3 version. I wonder if other developers may purchase this code or Sony would be interested in incorporating it into their 'Home' software...........



Interesting tech market research about what is most wanted for the holidays. The Wii being the most wanted of the three consoles shouldn't be terribly shocking, but the reason for it is pretty interesting. While the PS3 is the most wanted console amongst men, the Wii was the clear leader amongst women, boosting it to the top of the overall list when comparing consoles. We knew this at some level, but these polling figures bear it out.

Also, HDTV interest is way up from previous year. Expect a big push of new HDTV's this holiday season.

http://www.srgnet.com/pdf/Holiday%20...er_10_2007.pdf

Woot! Love the Timesplitters series.

Nintendo steps on their own next-gen dick, as their scheduled BIG GAME for Christmas, Super Smash Brothers Brawl, is delayed till 2/10/08

Booooooooo. I thought it was only delayed a bit. Next year is a long time to wait!

Isn't Mario Galaxy their BIG GAME for Christmas? It is for me, at least.

Super Mario Galaxy >>>>>>>>> Smash Brothers

At least Nintendo will take the extra time to polish a game rather than rush it out like some companies, but yeah it really sucks for fans of the series. From a business perspective it gives them a big seller for early 2008 while Wiis will probably sell like hotcakes up through Christmas season either way.

In other big news EA is to acquire Bioware and Pandemic Studios. I'm already looking forward to the Mass Effect cellphone port.

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/071011/20071011006083.html?.v=1

Given the rate at which EA acquires game studios, I suppose it's inevitable that at some point I'll work for them...

Oh god.. Hasta Luego, Bioware, I was hoping that you would avoid the dim mak touch of EA

Please don't let EA kill Bioware...PLEASE don't let EA kill Bioware...

Lol @ bioware.

PWNED

I'm glad Nintendo is waiting but that does put a bit of a damper on Christmas for them. I wonder if they are still expecting supply issues and then bumping a huge game and system seller to Q1 2008 isn't such a bad idea.

SSBM was still the best selling Gamecube game so perhaps that may be a few too many ">"

SI

Oh I was talking about how I feel about the games personally, not the sales potential. Super Mario Galaxy just looks, as a Brazilian might say, "fuck awesome."

I was looking forward to Smash Bros. way more than Galaxy.

I like Mario games but the whole sphere 'maps' in Galaxy just doesn't do it for me, looks like a serious headache inducer. Hopefully that's only a small portion of the game.

They already own 20% of our stock, although they have not yet made a move to acquire enough of the rest to buy us outright.

It's weird that everything I've read claims that the Mass Effect IP belongs to Microsoft, but EA are claiming that it was part of their purchase.

I wonder if that means basically "Okay, here's this exclusive trilogy on the Xbox 360, that's contractual, but after that, Mass Effect is a free agent IP."

Euro Sony exec announced yesterday that a PS3 system will be bundled with MGS4 and DualShock controller in March 2008 in PAL territories. No mention of which PS3 will be in the bundle.

Looks like Capcom may have a PS3 announcement late next week. Capcom developer response yesterday when asked about the Monster Hunter 3 move to Wii and the PS3 crowd's negative response: "Let's see how they feel at the end of next week".

Apparently Frys is selling the XBOX360 premium right now via mail order for $400, and it includes Bioshock, Half-Life 2 Orange Box, Two Worlds, Marvel Ultimate Alliance and Forza 2. The software alone is worth $250.

Checkout slickdeals.net for the link.

There's some nuts deals popping up in bundles everywhere. There's actually a bundle 'war' going on between Blockbuster UK and some of its competitors right now in the UK. They're offering 360's and PS3's with basically 3 games free. Similar deals on both systems here in the states as you mentioned. It's a great time to buy right now if people are looking for a 360 or PS3.

Assassin's Creed will apparently be delayed until next year on the 360 and PS3. Typical culprits on both systems: Memory issues with the PS3 version and not enough space on the DVD for the 360 version.

Resistance: FOM sequel expected in November 2008.......

http://www.n4g.com/ps3/News-74547.aspx

Looks like Microsoft may be considering a 3D world online much like Home for the PS3.......

http://kotaku.com/gaming/hedge-bet/m...too-309709.php

Warhawk will have an expansion pack with new maps, vehicles, and weapons sometime in December. No word as to what the price (if any) will be.

Super Smash Brothers Brawl has a new release date of February 10th......

http://wii.ign.com/articles/826/826577p1.html

In the rumor departments, Dark Cloud 3 for the PS3 is reportedly in development. Also, Michael Pachter is predicting a 400K month for the 360 in September, which would be their highest non-holiday month on the 360 since release. September NPD numbers are expected at the end of this week.

If DVD space is a "typical" culprit on the 360, what other games can you name that have been delayed due to DVD space? The only other game mentioned in these discussions was about Rage, and that only because they chose to ship on 2 (again because they are showcasing tech that is all about tons and tons of texture data), not because they made some big stink about how limiting DVD size was.

You'd think XBox 360 numbers would be higher than 400k.

It was 276k last month, and this is a five week period v. August's four week period.

Halo sold something like 1.7m copies I think the first day/weekend/something, and even though people say "well all the Halo people already had a 360" that can't be entirely true. Even if 90% of them already did which sounds rather high IMO, that'd be 170,000 extra 360's sold, meaning at least 440k.

Maybe a lot of people bought one in August due to the price drop, but I'd figure Halo 3 is a lot bigger than a $50 drop on the main SKU. We'll find out on Thursday night I suppose.

N'Gai discusses the loss of three major developers in three weeks from Microsoft Game Studios and how that could affect the console and game outlook.........

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/level...-all-mean.aspx

New PS3 model is evidently in the works. This may be the system that ends up being bundled with MGS4..........

http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/15/p...nds-at-the-fcc

Spanish retailer is reporting that there will be a 50 Euro price cut on the Premium and Elite 360's. This will bring the Elite price down to the same price level as the newly released 40 GB PS3 and put the Premium model 50 Euros cheaper. Really good price war developing in Europe, which should benefit consumers. UK numbers since PS3 price cut show that the PS3 has already sold 250K units. Spanish and German sales have also been strong.

GTA IV has had rumors that one of the reasons for delay on the 360 version is that they're trying to squeeze it on one disc and aren't able to do so. However, there are plenty of other issues on both the 360 and PS3 versions, so it's not the sole reason. Lost Odyssey is going to be released on 4 discs, so it obviously had some disc size issues as well.

To your point, I've always stated that I think the 'one disc idealism' isn't that big of a deal for me personally. If FFXIII came out on 3 or 4 discs, I wouldn't complain at all. I'm not sure what the big stigma is about multiple disc games, but it does exist amongst some gamers. If it didn't, they wouldn't delay the game trying to get it to fit on one disc. The smart developers say 'the hell with that' and just stick it on multiple discs.

Target let one slip evidently. 40 GB PS3 is in the system and will be released October 28th. Rumors still abound that Spiderman 3 for BR will be the bundled disc.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/16/4...arget-for-399/

Capcom announce a Bionic Commando remake is currently in development for the 360, PS3 and PC. No mention of a release date.

Great article about sports games and just how bad they are at this point by Bill Abner........

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/arti...Stagnant-State

Good article and I agree with most of what he has to say. Has he reviewed MLB Power Pros, for me that game is a breath of fresh air for console sports games.

The Gameshark review (Bill Abner is an editor there) for MLB Power Pros is already up.

http://www.gameshark.com/reviews/278...Wii-Review.htm

Also, MLB Power Pros is being displayed prominently at their blog (http://www.sportsgamerblog.com) because they want it to do well. Bill and the group over there actually wrote out a complete play guide for a Japanese baseball game that played well simply because they were so tired of the bad games here in the U.S.

MLB Power Pros and NHL 08 are both the best sports games I've played in eons. So while I agree with some of his points on the genre, I think there is still a lot of good happening in sports games as well.

I don't know how sales are going elsewhere, but at my store the new premium Xbox's with the new chipset and all and Marvel UA and Forza are flying off the shelves as quickly as Wii's.

Meh. I can't get the URL tag to work the way I want it to.

Summary: Sony's gone from the 20/60 tag-team at system launch to 80 GB with a 40 GB very likely on the way. 80 has software backwards compatibility, 40 loses BC entirely and gets reduced from 4 USB ports to 2 - which I really don't understand with the whole "wireless controller has battery built-in and must be recharged via USB" thing.

Is that tacit admission that with the Bluetooth issues they've had, we're not likely to see many games with more than two player local multiplayer going forward?

Now, apparently, there's another filing for a new SKU with the FCC. It's either for DualShock 3 or for something else entirely. If it's something else entirely, we're looking at six SKUs within a year'ish of launch.

I can't wait for about five or ten years from now to see if David Sheff updates "Game Over: Press Start to Continue," because I'm seriously curious what kind of conversations are going on in the Sony board room right now.

The number of USB ports has nothing to do with the number of player that can play locally on the machine. You can have between one and seven controllers on all PS3 machines, regardless of the number of USB ports. The only change is that you have less ports to charge your controllers with. Given that they have a life around 40-50 hours, you rarely should need more than a couple of ports anyway. If you truly do need 4-6 USB ports because you have that many players playing at one location for long periods, you can pick up a USB port expander for 10-20 dollars to allow more ports. It certainly has nothing to do with any connection issues, as reports of that occurring are pretty infrequent.

Interesting sales info coming out of the UK. Evidently, the introduction of the 40 GB machine (which has no PS2 BC at all and no games included) has created a sales rush on the discounted 60 GB version (with BC and 2 games included for only 50 pounds more).

http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6181094....stnews;title;2

That must be very encouraging for Sony to realize that the box they are discontinuing is selling well.

I'm not sure it's all that surprising. There's a certain segment that wants the BC in their PS3 and with the dropped price and the 2 extra games included, its the better value at this point. The new PS3 that has just been reviewed by the FCC is likely the successor to the 60 GB machine. They won't stick with one SKU in the EU.

I expect that the same thing will happen in the U.S. when the 40 GB machine comes out. There's going to be a run on the remaining 60 GB SKU stock to get the remaining units with full BC.

I'd say a very large segment. Again, Sony is one of those companies that seems to be trying their hardest to not make their product an easy buy. As soon as the price point comes down, they strip one of their key features - a built-in excuse to upgrade from a PS2 to a PS3. It makes no sense, especially when the chipset that enables BC is so cheap.

Right when I begin to think, "hey, this may not be such a bad buy after all," - they pull the carpet out from under you and you start from scratch again.

Wonder what the price for the 60GB one will be when the 40 is released...

The PS3 is a lot like a luxury automobile. The quality is very good, but then you see the price and think, "Do I really want to pay that much for 4 wheels when I could get a Ford or Chevy that could do the same thing for a lot cheaper?"

The 360 is a lot like Kia. It's an affordable machine that has some quality issues, so they resolve that problem by offering a much longer warranty to cover any problems down the road.

Nintendo would end up being the Toyota of the bunch. Reliable car at an affordable price to the masses.

If they do drop it, it will go to $449. Of course there's not 2 games packed in like the EU version.

Dropping BC seems like such a dumb move. It's throwing away one of PS3's advantages over the 360.

It's still available on 2 of the 3 systems, so it's not being dropped. You can still get it if you want it.

I'm not sure anyone knows the exact cost savings that Sony is getting from the dropped BC in the 40 GB box. My guess is that the money they saved would have been better spent by just leaving it in the 40 GB box and avoiding the negative response it's receiving from the hardcore gaming group. They certainly aren't saving anywhere near the $100 that is the price difference between the 40 GB and 60 GB machines.

I don't play BC games much at all, but I'm glad I have the 60 GB machine to give me that option. I honestly think that the 60 GB machine has been the best value from the start and is still the best PS3 machine available if you evaluate both price and value.

Which is exactly what I said.

But say, tell me - what's going to happen when they introduce DualShock controllers, and the battery life suffers because of it?

What's going to happen if you get a game where all four players want to play, and more than two controllers are either dead or die in the middle of playing?

The fact that they would take out two USB ports - which surely has to be cheaper to include than the backwards compatibility - combined with the fact that so many of the 'multiplayer' games are currently multiplayer only online, and I'm wondering if that's not a tacit admission that they don't plan to pursue four player games terribly frequently, even though the system will support up to seven.

I'm going to put that line right up there with Microsoft's "It's only happening about 2-3% of the time" line.

"pretty infrequent" my fat, hairy ass.

As mentioned before, for about $20 you can expand two ports to six ports. So for those that truly need it, it's a minimal upgrade cost. I have 4 ports and very rarely use more than 2 at any time, despite having 4 controllers and using all of them occasionally for 4 player Warhawk games. I think that's the norm rather than the exception and it would appear from the reduction of USB ports that Sony is of the same mind. I think the BC reduction is a much bigger omission than the USB ports. I doubt many will even notice the USB reduction.

I have no information on your ass, so I'll refrain from comments on it. :)

The reports have been sporatic at best and have been nothing like the openly publicized problems that you mention with the 360. If you have an article detailing the widespread problems with the controllers, please post it.